Doorstep selling involves someone selling you goods or services in your home or on your doorstep. This is a legitimate activity that many businesses use. But so do fraudsters.  Older people and children are more vulnerable in many ways. That is why many criminals target them. Doorstep fraud involves fraudsters trying to scam you after knocking at your door. Unfortunately, we have all heard those stories, but you don’t have to worry if you know how to recognise them and what to do if someone tries to scam you at home.

First of all, you need to know that door-to-door frauds can take many forms: pressure selling, unfair contracts, overpriced or substandard home maintenance or improvements, phone consumer surveys, bogus charity collections… These frauds consist of providing goods or services that are either never delivered to you or are of a very poor quality.

You should also be careful with bogus callers or doorstep thieves. Those are people who try to access your home to steal from you. Bogus callers can be anybody male or female, adults or even children. They usually claim to be a council official, from gas or water board, the police, from a charity… Unfortunately, they target the elderly too, so before you let someone in your home, make sure that they are truly what they say they are. Always ask for identification, check credentials (including business address and landline telephone number), and ask questions.

These unfortunate events are more common than you think, but keeping this in mind will help us prevent many of them from happening. And of course, call the police if you think a door-to-door bogus caller has knocked on your door.